Broken Vale
by NobleMETA
Summary: Vale is now a warzone thanks to Roman Torchwick and Cinder Fall, who lead the White Fang into a destructive assault on the city. What is left of Beacon and it's students, have created an army to fight back against the White Fang in an open war in the streets of the broken city. Is there anyway to restore Vale to the glory it once was, or will Ruby and her friends die trying?
1. Prologue

**Please read the Author Notes for important information:**

* * *

The leaves of early autumn were starting to fall, but it was always that way in the forest of Forever Fall. A eery quiet hung in the air, the only sounds being made were the crunching of the leaves beneath Ruby's boots as she walked amongst the graves of those who had fallen before her. It was a strange picture to anyone who would see it without understanding why it was like that in the first place. How could someone so young walk amongst the graves before her and not ask so many questions about life or death?

_Looks like there are two more graves this time._ Ruby thought to herself as she passed them by. _It's only been a week since I was here and it always seems to be home to a few new people each time._ Ruby started to walk in between the graves now, looking to find one in particular.

A lot has changed about her, for instance her blouse was now white, and it's sleeves were rolled up above her elbows. She still wore her black corset over the blouse, and she still wore her black skirt and crimson red cloak, but the cloak and the skirt were worn and had tears in them from the battles she had gone through up to that point. Her hair was much longer, and there was a much more noticeable difference between the black and red in it. Under her skirt, she now wore crimson greaves to cover her leggings, and her boots now served as weapons since Crescent Rose was destroyed.

"I hope you're doing well." Ruby said once she found the grave that she was looking for. She placed her hand on the grave, her wrists now adorned with bladed gauntlets that she also used to fight with, since her original weapon was destroyed. "It looks like Russel will be joining you soon. So you know, just make him feel welcome I guess."

Ruby knelt down in front of the grave before her. "Everyone really misses you, especially Yang. I know you did what you did to save her life, but it's really affecting her the most." Ruby remained silent for a moment as she looked at the name that was carved into the tombstone she was kneeling in front of, a name that she never hoped to see in such a place.

Blake Belladonna

* * *

3 years ago

* * *

_In the beginning of Team RWBY's third year at Beacon, the city of Vale and Beacon came under attack by Cinder Fall and Roman Torchwick. The attack left the school in shambles and the city in ruins. With the White Fang on their side, Torchwick and Fall turned Vale into a warzone. Despite the sudden and destructive assault, many of the hunters and huntresses in training at Beacon survived and created an army to fight back against the white fang. But as in every war, no one involved leaves without scars._

Yang fought hard against Mercury, dodging his blasts from the shotguns attached to his greaves, and parrying the kicks that he sent her way. She was fighting for her life, knowing that she couldn't mess up, or else she wouldn't be going home. Dealing attacks and defending herself when her attacks were blocked, Yang finally made her fatal mistake. Mercury launched himself towards her with an overhead swing of his foot, one she couldn't block in time. The kick sent her back, and caused her to lose balance. "Gahh." Yang cried out when the blow was struck against her.

"Game over Blondie." Mercury called out to her as he readied the fatal blow. He brought his foot up and was preparing a blast from his shotgun that would kill Yang.

"No!"

The blast went off, and both Mercury and Yang were shocked to see what had happened. Yang had a tear in her eyes as she saw that someone had stood in the way of the shot and took the hit for her. Unfortunately for her, she saw that her own partner was the one who had taken the blast. With Mercury's foot still against her chest, it looked like there was nothing left for her. Time slowed down, the screams of battle around her were drowned out by the sight Yang saw before her. Her mind became a whirlwind of fear, anger, despair, loss, and sadness.

"Don't..." Yang was surprised to hear Blake speak after what she went through. "...ever..." Mercury tried to pull his foot away, but he felt something keep it in place. When he looked down he saw that Blake had grabbed a hold of his leg in his hesitation to move, and he was trapped. "...hurt..." Blake, with Gambrol Shroud in hand, plunged her blade deep into the heart of Mercury. "...my friends."

With that, she pulled the blade out of his chest, and let his failing body fall to the ground, where it was dead as soon as it hit the floor. Yang believed that Blake was ok, but once she saw that Blake herself was collapsing, she immediately ran over to her and caught her before she hit the ground. Yang looked down at Blake's chest and saw just how badly she was hurt, a hole blown open in her chest from the shotgun's blast. Yang knew right then and there, that there was nothing that could be done for her, and because of that, she burst into tears.

Blake still had life left in her eyes, but it was starting to fade away. "Why?" Blake heard Yang ask her, giving her a reason to stay alive just a little longer. "Why would you do that Blake? You had to know that it would kill you, so why save me?" Yang's sobs caused her words to be muddled and hard to understand, but Blake knew what she was saying. It took Blake all the strength that she had, but after a brief moment she was finally able to answer Yang.

"Be-because, you're everything to me. Y-you t-told me once that you would die for me."

Yang, on her knees with Blake wrapped up in her arms, couldn't stop her tears from coming down. Everything that the two of them had built up together, the good times, the bad times, it all came up and she didn't want them to end. "But we were supposed to grow old together, you promised me that you would."

Yang's words struck a cord within Blake, a promise that she had made a long time ago to her partner. "I'm sorry Yang." Blake said as she herself started to cry, feeling as though she had let her blonde partner down. "I guess this is one promise that I can't keep." Blake looked up at her partner, who's lilac eyes were only focused on her. "I can promise you, that no matter what happens..." Blake reached up to Yang and pulled herself up as best she could. Her lips connected with Yang's, and she gave her one final kiss goodbye. "...I'll always be here with you, in your heart." Blake let herself drop back down to where she was before in Yang's arms, and took her last breaths. "Goodbye Yang...I love you." Blake said as the last breath of her life left her body.

Once she realized that Blake was finally gone, Yang cried out as loud as she possibly could. She had lost the one person who she cared about the most in this world, and now she knew that nothing could ever replace her. She didn't care anymore if someone came up from behind her and stabbed her in the back, she already felt dead inside. Despite the battle around her, she was left alone to caress the now lifeless face of her one true love. Yang rested her forehead against Blake's and whispered apologies, words of love and encouragement, anything that she felt could bring Blake back to her, but nothing worked.

After many moments passed, Yang finally moved. She stood up, carrying Blake within her arms, and started to walk away, the last life that she herself had, now gone as well.

* * *

Elsewhere in Vale

* * *

The fight was long and brutal, bodies of those wounded were starting to grow higher and both sides were pushing themselves to a point that they never thought they would reach before. Of those fighting, Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos stood tall against the White Fang. The training that Pyrrha put Jaune through when he started at Beacon had most certainly improved his overall fighting skill, and his confidence had soared since he began. Standing shoulder to shoulder, Jaune and Pyrrha worked well together as they tried to hold back the White Fang.

It wasn't an easy fight, but the two of them were helping to hold back the seamlessly unending White Fang incursion. They were giving it all that they had, and their efforts were not wasted. As they fought, Jaune spotted something out of the corner of his eye, something that scared him tremendously. He saw Roman Torchwick aim his weapon, Melodic Cudgel, right at Pyrrha. Firing a shot a Pyrrha, Jaune didn't even think about what he was doing, instead just throwing himself in the way of the blast. The round connected with the ground not a foot in front of him, and the blast sent him flying backwards, right past Pyrrha.

Pyrrha noticed him go down, and she heard him cry out in pain as he laid down on the ground. She realized that if it weren't for him it would be her in that position instead, and so she knew that she had to do something to get him out of there alive. Channeling her semblance, she forced all the White Fang forces back with the sheer force of her magnetic powers. Once she was finished, she immediately ran over to Jaune to survey the damage, noticing just how horrific a wound he had received in his selfless act. She started to tear up, but pushed aside those thoughts as she took action. "Jaune just stay with me ok? I promise you'll be better soon." She said trying to calm him down.

Jaune tried to remain calm, but the pain was too strong to fight through this time. "It hurts so much Pyrrha, it hurts so much." He said to her, his voice quivering as he spoke.

Pyrrha decided that now wasn't the time to cry, she needed to take action. "Please Jaune, I know you can make it..." She started to pick him up and she carried him over her shoulders away from the battle, making sure to grab his shield and sword before she left. "...see, it looks like there's a medical tent right there." She said to him as she moved as fast as she could to carry him over to the tent. Once she reached the tent the medics that were there, mostly what was left of the Beacon medical staff as well as some senior level students with medical prowess, took Jaune to heal his wounds.

Once Jaune was in more competent hands, Pyrrha looked down at herself, the blood from Jaune's wound covering her arm and shoulder from where she carried him. She grew fearful for his safety, but she also realized that anything she could have done she did. She turned her attention back towards the battlefield all around her, her mind preparing herself to return to battle. It was the only thing she could do at this point and so she was prepared to jump back into the fight, but something caught her eye and she stopped herself. She turned her attention towards Ruby, whom she saw running towards her, parts of something being carried in her hands. "Ruby are you ok?"

Ruby stopped in front of Pyrrha, taking a moment to catch her breath. After a few moments she stood up normally and nodded to Pyrrha. "I'm fine, but my weapon was destroyed." Pyrrha noticed that Ruby sounded upset about that fact, and noticed that the parts that she carried in her hands were some of the pieces of her own weapon. "I was able to recover as much as I could, but I don't think I can rebuild it to what it was."

Pyrrha placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder, hoping that it would serve as a comforting embrace to the younger girl. Despite being now 17, she was still so young and had much to learn. "Well, at least you're still around. Things could have been much worse, and you can always build yourself a newer weapon with what you have. It may not be the same as Crescent Rose, but I'm sure it will be just as well crafted as that was, since it would be by your hands." Pyrrha knew that sometimes taking even the smallest optimistic point, and emphasizing it would be helpful, something she learned from teaching Jaune. She knew Ruby was a gifted craftsman, and so she made sure to bring that up to her.

It seemed to work as Ruby started to cheer up a bit, looking up to Pyrrha and giving her a smile. But that smile quickly faded as Ruby saw the shape Pyrrha was in. She immediately dropped all of her other concerns, and went into her leader mode. "Pyrrha, what happened?" Ruby said to her once she saw the blood that was on Pyrrha's arm.

Now it was Pyrrha's turn to feel distraught. "It's Jaune." She said to Ruby, taking a few steps away and looking towards the medical tent. She couldn't see it, but inside she knew that the medics were doing everything they could to heal Jaune's wounds. The image she saw when she first noticed his injury had been burned into her memory, an image of Jaune laying on the ground in pain, his right leg blown off below the knee and nothing left but a big bloody mess. She imagined that the doctors were doing everything they could to keep Jaune alive, but she knew that his leg couldn't be fully healed, only patched up and given a prosthetic to allow him to walk again. "He was hurt badly." Pyrrha said to Ruby, not wanting her to grow more distressed than she already was. Pyrrha fell down to her knees and she felt herself tear up over the image.

Now it was Ruby's turn to place her hand on Pyrrha's shoulder, returning the comfort that she had just received mere moments ago. "I'm sure he'll be ok. He always finds a way to bounce back from adversity." She knelt down next to her and gave her a smile doing her best to cheer her up.

Pyrrha nodded and her tears slowed down to a crawl. It wouldn't heal the pain but at least she could take light in the fact that he would be alive after this. "Yeah, you're right." Pyrrha said, her voice trailing off. She could revel in the fact that Ruby was right and that Jaune would be ok, and it gave her hope.

Unfortunately, fate wasn't being kind to Team RWBY or JNPR on that day. Pyrrha noticed Yang approaching off behind Ruby, someone being carried in her arms. As Pyrrha got a good look at her, she noticed something that made her shudder. Yang was carrying the body of someone, and judging by some of the details of that body, she realized that it was none other than Blake. "Oh my god." Pyrrha said, her voice laden with shock, fear, all kinds of emotions that made her feel weakened by the sight of her friend hanging limp from Yang's arms.

Ruby turned to see what Pyrrha was looking at, and she saw her sister coming towards them. "Yang?" She calls out as she stands up and runs towards her sister. "Yang are you al-..." Ruby stopped moving once she saw that Blake was being carried in Yang's arms. "Yang? Why isn't Blake moving?" Ruby was fearing the worst, that Blake would be dead and that she couldn't do anything about it. When she noticed that Yang had stopped moving, and turned her head to look at Ruby, that's when Ruby's fears were confirmed. Ruby dropped the parts of her past weapon to the ground, letting them scatter around her. She saw the bloodshot eyes that Yang displayed, the tears that had stained her cheeks, but what hit her most, was that she looked like all the life in her had just disappeared.

"No..." Ruby stated as she fell down to her knees. "...no, no no, this isn't happening." Ruby stated, the tears starting to come down. Pyrrha was over to her faster than she could be, wrapping Ruby up in a hug and letting her cry into her shoulder. "She can't be gone, she just can't." Ruby and Pyrrha stayed there for what felt like forever. Pyrrha, without saying a word let Yang know that she would do what she could to handle Ruby and that she could take care of Blake. Pyrrha didn't say anything, she knew that there were no words that could help heal Ruby's heart.

Pyrrha then noticed that one of the medics from the tent was walking towards her. "Miss Nikos?" The man said once he made it over to her and Ruby.

Pyrrha looked to Ruby, wondering if now was the right time to talk to the man, but she noticed that Ruby nodded to her, giving her an unsaid sign that she knew it was important, and that Pyrrha needed to take care of it. Pyrrha nodded to Ruby and whispered into her ear. "I'll be right back." Pyrrha stated. She stood up and walked with the doctor so that they were out of earshot of Ruby, not wanting to cause her any more problems. "Is everything ok with Jaune?" Pyrrha said immediately as they stopped walking.

The man turned to her and nodded. "We managed to stop the bleeding and we sealed the wound, so his body will be able to recreate any blood that was lost. He'll most likely be out of action for a few weeks while that happens." Pyrrha nodded, glad that he was ok, despite how bad the injury was. "Unfortunately, because of the injury, it's going to take quite some time for him to adjust. We can give him a prosthetic leg to allow him to walk, and possibly continue fighting if he does well with it. The only thing is, he may take the news badly, and some psychological issues may arise when he hears it." Pyrrha knew it wouldn't be good, but from what she could tell, things were looking like they would be alright after some time. "He's asleep now, but when he wakes up, it should be best that you're there next to him." He stated.

Pyrrha knew that this meant getting back to the fight wasn't the smartest idea, and honestly her concern for Jaune outweighed her need to fight at that moment. Besides, she knew that there were some things that were more important at the moment when she turned back to see Ruby. "I understand." She turned her head to face the medic. "Let me know when he wakes up?" She asked the man, who in turn nodded and returned to his duties. Pyrrha walked back over to Ruby and knelt down next to her. "How are you doing Ruby?" She asked, realizing after she said it that her choice of words was probably not that great.

Ruby rubbed her nose with the sleeve of her blouse, not even bothering to look at Pyrrha. "How am I doing?" She said quietly, her voice filled with a mix of sadness, anger, grief, guilt, and so much more that it pained Pyrrha to hear the way that Ruby sounded. "My sister is in tears, I haven't heard anything at all from Weiss since before the attack, and Blake..." Ruby didn't go on, she didn't want to say what had happened to Blake.

Pyrrha wrapped Ruby up in a hug, trying to make up for the mistake she made in her question. "I'm sorry Ruby, I shouldn't have asked that. I promise you that I'll make things right Ruby." She said, doing the best that she could to make up for her actions.

Ruby pulled out of the hug to look at Pyrrha, waving her hands to stop Pyrrha from going on. "No I'm sorry Pyrrha. It's just..." she didn't know what to say to the warrior. "...I never expected things to be this bad. I know you meant well." Pyrrha wanted to go on and say something, however before she could, Ren came up to her.

"Pyrrha we-" Ren paused when he noticed Ruby, her arms being held by Pyrrha. "-oh Ruby good. We found Weiss." Ren stated right away.

Once she heard what Ren had said, her expression changed. She became more concerned about Weiss' well being, and put everything else aside. "Where is she?!" She asked, shooting up from the ground as fast as she could.

Ren turned around and started to walk away, leading her and Pyrrha towards Weiss' location. "Follow me." He stated as he took off with Ruby and Pyrrha in tow.

They ran for a few minutes, leaping over rubble from destroyed buildings and through the wreckage that the bloody assault on Vale had caused. Ruby was gravely concerned for Weiss, and Ren was being vague for some reason. So she needed answers. "Ren is Weiss ok?" She asked, hoping that would be enough to get a response out of him.

It clearly worked, as Ren stopped for a moment to address her. After a few moments of silence Ren finally responded. "Ruby, Weiss is in bad shape. I can't say that she is in grave danger, but from what I saw, things didn't look well." Ren stated.

Ruby just stood there, silent, worry setting in again. She felt her heart shatter when she heard the news, fearful that she would lose Weiss as well. Pyrrha quickly went over to her side to reassure you. "I know that you're hurting right now, but like Jaune, there is a chance that Weiss will be fine. We just need to find her soon."

As much as Ruby knew that things were already bad, she saw Pyrrha's point. Ruby nodded to Pyrrha, wiping the tears from her eyes and steeling herself with a desire to find Weiss right away. "R-right, we need to find her." Despite the stumble in her voice, Ruby was filled with determination, and Pyrrha noticed it.

Ruby, Ren and Pyrrha moved even quicker then, pushing themselves further and further into the war torn city. Eventually they came up to where Weiss was, and what they saw shocked both Ruby and Pyrrha. There, in front of them, was Weiss. But it wasn't just her standing there normally, no, what they saw was Weiss, frozen into place by ice, and her weapon Myrtenaster pointed into the ground right at the ice's epicenter. Ruby saw that Weiss looked in pain, a sword of some sort just piercing the right side of her chest, the obvious wielder, a man wearing all black save for the white mask over his eyes, also trapped inside of the frozen block with her.

"Weiss?" Ruby said softly, taking a small step forward. Not a moment later, Ruby ran full speed towards Weiss, screaming at the top of her lungs. "Weiss!" Once she came up to the ice, she started to pound on the ice with all her might, hoping that she could break her out with sheer force. She felt someone grab her from behind and pull her back a bit. "Let go of me!" She shouted.

Ruby looked to see that it was Pyrrha holding her back, a saddened look on her face. "Ruby wait, if Weiss is frozen in there, breaking the ice might do more harm than good." Ruby didn't want to hear any of it, no matter how right Pyrrha was. She needed to get her partner out of there. "We need to wait for someone who can get her out without causing her more harm." She said to Ruby.

Ruby stopped struggling, giving Pyrrha the validation to let go of her. Ruby walked over to the ice block and let her forehead fall against it. Looking at Weiss, she whispered something that only she could hear, and that she hoped Weiss would hear. "I'll get you out soon Weiss, I promise."

* * *

Present Time

* * *

Ruby rubbed her hand along the top of Blake's grave. She still couldn't believe that was three years ago. Before she could go on though, she heard someone approach and speak to her. "You ok Ruby?"

Ruby turned around and noticed that her partner, Weiss, was standing behind her, looking at her with concern all over her face. In the years that followed the first attack, Weiss' outward appearance had changed as well as Ruby's. Her hair was much shorter, but it was still pulled up into her usual ponytail, and she let her hair in the front grow out a bit more, and she brushed her new, longer bangs over to the left side of her face, over her eye and most of her scar. Her trademark white bolero jacket was now switched up for long white, sleeveless tunic. The inside was red, like her jacket was, and it had the high up collar like before. In place of the sleeves, she now wore silver bracers on her arms from her wrist to just below her elbow.

The belt she wore was red, and it went across her waist and up diagonally, meeting into one piece on her right hip. Her boots were now silver greaves that went up past her knees and up her thighs, and she wore gray leggings underneath. What most people didn't notice right away, but what Ruby always pointed out, Weiss had grown taller in the time that she had known the white haired princess, and her chest grew more noticeable. Despite all of these differences, she was still the same Weiss that Ruby had known all these years. She rubbed off on Weiss as well, allowing Weiss to open up more with the red haired girl, and Weiss passed on some of her traits to Ruby as well.

"Just, visiting Blake, you know how I really miss her Weiss. We all do." The last part Ruby kept to herself. She turned back to Weiss and proceeded to change the subject. "You still having any issues controlling the dust?" Ruby asked.

After Weiss was freed from her icy prison, she was still in danger, and as a desperate last attempt to keep her alive, her body was infused with dust to give her aura the strength it needed to keep Weiss alive. As a side effect, Weiss learned that she could channel the dust's energy through her body and use it to create fire, ice, lightning, anything that dust could do, with a simple thought. Despite this though, Weiss still had trouble when it came to controlling the dust's energy, and as such, she has worked as hard as she could to bring it's power under her control. Occasionally though there are moments when she can't control it, though now they are few and far between.

With a snap of her fingers, Weiss lit a fire in her hand, signifying that, at least for the moment, she had control over the flames. "Not today." She extinguished the flames when she closed her hand into a fist. Returning her attention to Ruby, she still wasn't convinced that Ruby was alright, but decided to go for a more subtle approach. "I still can't believe that three years have gone by and I still have trouble controlling it sometimes."

"I still can't believe it's been that long."

Bingo, that was what Weiss was looking for. She knelt down next to Ruby, who was still in front of Blake's grave, and rubbed her back with her hand. "We all miss Blake, we really do, Yang especially. But I don't think she would want us to do this." Weiss looked around at some of the other graves that were around, too many graves to count. "She's up there with friends already thanks to this war." Closing her eyes, she thought of a few that passed through her mind. "Velvet, Nora, even Dr. Oobleck are all with her watching over us, they all are." Weiss opened her eyes and looked at Ruby, hoping that she could help soothe her partner, who had never experienced grief and suffering quite like this before.

Ruby nodded her head, and then turned to look back at Blake's grave. "I know, but I wish that this whole thing didn't happen." She closed her eyes, hoping that it would stop the tears that were bursting through, and she slammed her fist into her leg. "Why is it that good people have to die in this stupid war?" Ruby let it all out, even after years of crying over lost friends and past memories, she still had tears left in reserve.

Weiss sighed, she knew her partner had never truly been the same since the war started, and it pained her to see Ruby that way, almost like a part of her heart was breaking. "If I could change what happened, I would keep this whole thing from happening. But the reality is, I can't" Weiss embraced Ruby's face in the palms of her hands and turned her to face Weiss. "But, I promise that I'll do everything possible to bring peace to Vale once more." Weiss pushed herself up and held out her hand to Ruby. "Come on, we have work to do." She stated.

Ruby sighed as well as she grabbed Weiss' hand and let her pull the young fighter up. Not letting go of Weiss' hand, she looked Weiss directly in the eyes. "Promise me that you'll never leave me."

Weiss gave Ruby a small smile, pulling Ruby into a hug, and whispered into her ear. "I promise." Once she let go of her hug, she turned around and started to walk away. "Now come on, let's get going. Jaune says that this job is important so it's time to go." Weiss stated as she left.

Giving herself one last look at Blake's grave, she mentally made a promise to Blake that she would one day end this war. "I'm right behind you Weiss." She said as she turned and ran to catch up with Weiss as the two of them passed through the falling leaves of autumn.

* * *

**AN: So yeah, this is a thing. I'm creating a story that hopefully gets recognized as a big AU, much like the Future AU or the Henceforward AU. So this is just the prologue to the actual story, which kinda explains some of the details that happen prior. Fortunately I have someone who is going to be working with me in turning this into a comic, which hopefully, it will get published onto DA and or Tumblr soon (at least the start of it).**

**Now importantly, yes I know that I've killed off some of the main cast already, but they all have a purpose for being killed off. It's not like I decided to do it for fun, in fact it was a hard choice to make, but it is what it is, and there will be more death to come from those who are still alive up till now.**

**Onto more important things, the artwork for Ruby and Weiss' new design, in relationship to this story, is already posted to DeviantArt under the artist's account (who happens to be my gf) and so you can find those two pieces of work here at sylverlyning67 deviantart com/ just replace the spaces with dots. (Thanks FanFiction)**

**I will be posting a more novelized version of the story on here, and if you wish to read the comic version, just look to DA or once we get it set up on Tumblr, you can go there.**

**Speaking of Tumblr, I finally have one, (despite not knowing how the fuck to tumblr at all), and you can find me at NobleMETA on Tumblr if you want to do things like that, but that's up to you.**

**Anyways, thanks for reading, I hope that you guys enjoy what's to come of this story and I'll try to update this as soon as possible.**

**-Noble**


	2. A New Assignment

Everyone was bustling about, trying to gather what info they could, running through mission briefings, all different kinds of things. It wasn't anything that Professor Port, now addressed as Commander Port due to being the only Huntsman with the experience to lead an army left in Vale. With Ozpin missing and Goodwitch trying yet again to gain support from the other kingdoms, the sole responsibility of fighting the war in Vale was his alone. Looking over the mission briefings, he heard the voices of two students of his, that if they were still in school, he would never expect to get along.

He turned his attention towards Jaune Arc, trying to talk to Cardin Winchester about something, but Commander Port didn't really pay much attention to it, believing that Jaune could do what he felt was right.

Jaune was having difficulties with talking to Cardin at the moment, but he still tried. "Cardin, you know that you've been given a few days off. You should seriously take them."

Cardin shook his head, adamant about what Jaune was saying. "You know that I won't do that Jauney-boy. I'm not leaving until you give me some work to do." Both Cardin and Jaune have grown respect for each other in ways that neither of them felt possible. Cardin eventually grew to be more open minded, for reasons he never told anyone else.

"You don't need to be here right now. You were given a few days because of what happened Cardin." Jaune pleaded with his now friend. Even Jaune himself couldn't believe it when Cardin began to work with him cooperatively.

Cardin sighed, he was eager to get into the fight again, get his mind off of things. "I know, but I figured that sitting around doing nothing isn't going to end this war." Cardin stated. He wanted this conflict to end just as much as everyone else did.

Jaune could see that it was eating at Cardin, so he walked over to him and placed his hand on Cardin's shoulder. "Cardin, I know you want to help, everyone can see that you want to help, but I also know that you and Russel were close friends. I can tell that you're hurting right now over what happened to him. Please, take some time off, not just for him, but for me as well. You need a rest just as much as the rest of us do, and no one will blame you for taking one." Jaune said to him, trying to sound as comforting as possible.

Carding took a deep breath and let it out. "Ok Jaune." He said to him, then gave him a pat on the arm. "You let me know if you need me though, even if it's in an hour from now." Cardin said as he started to walk back to the barracks.

As Jaune watched him go, he couldn't help but feel the weight of command on his shoulders. "I hope I don't have to."

Commander Port walked over to him and gave him a pat on the shoulder. "The weight of command is a heavy burden, and not for the light hearted, especially in a time of war. I know that you don't want to lose any more men, but in this war there is no guarantee that will happen. Considering what we've lost already, I'm sure that many of these young men and women will be grateful just to get out of here alive." Port said to Jaune, who nodded and gave a small smile back to the elder man. "Come now my boy, Goodwitch and Pyrrha should be trying to make contact with us by now." He turned and led Jaune over to the terminal the two women were trying to contact them from. "Ah Miss Goodwitch, a pleasure it is to see you again, though the connection could be better." He stated.

"Of course, though you can blame the White Fang for knocking out the Cross-Continental Transit Tower. I'm still surprised that these old terminals are still functional." Goodwitch stated from the screen. It was filled with static and hard to understand what she was saying, but Port and Jaune could understand enough to get by. "What news do you have for me Peter?" She asked.

"No new developments I'm afraid. Our dust supplies are growing smaller by the day, and we just lost two more young warriors." Port said, his usual bombastic personality being tempered by setback after setback. "How about yourself? Is the kingdom of Vacuo finally willing to send aid to us?" He asked.

"Unfortunately no. The White Fang are setting up for an incursion into the other kingdoms, and all of their leaders are more concerned with their own borders instead of aiding where the fight actually is. Combine that with Grimm activities near their borders, and you can see what they are more interested in. Those short sighted fools don't see how if one kingdom falls, then the rest will fall along with it." Glynda said, venom spitting out of her mouth. "Fortunately however, General Ironwood of Atlas is willing to send us some dust supplies, and robotic troops, though it won't be much."

Peter chuckled a bit after hearing that. "Ah well you know what they say, every little bit counts. Though I do wonder how they plan on getting it here without alerting the White Fang. Most ships get shot down when they fly over Vale nowadays." He said.

"Well we can figure things out at a later time. For now we both have to get back to work." Glynda said.

"Likewise. Good hunting to the two of you." Peter said.

"Same to you Professor." Pyrrha said, speaking up for the first time that conversation.

"I don't believe that I'm your Professor any more young lass." He said to Pyrrha.

"Of course, and Jaune..." Pyrrha said to the young man standing with Professor Port. "...please be careful." She said to him.

"I promise I will, you be careful too." He said back to her.

"I'll see you again soon." Pyrrha said as the transmission was ended.

Jaune sighed, communicating between Vale and the other kingdoms was close to impossible nowadays with the loss of the CCT, and so they had to rely on old terminals to stay in touch with Goodwitch and Pyrrha, who were acting as ambassadors to the Huntsman defending Vale. Though they were met with very little success, everything they sent back was put to use immediately. "Don't worry Jaune, I'm sure Glynda and Pyrrha will return safely, with an army to help us quell the White Fang and stop this terrible war." Peter said, hoping it would calm Jaune down.

Jaune nodded, but before he could respond, he noticed that Ruby and Weiss had walked into the command center. "Ah, Ruby Weiss, it's good to see you two." Jaune said, walking over to them.

"Likewise Jaune." Ruby said. She sounded cheery and eager to get to work. Weiss on the other hand, looked stoic and impatient. She wanted to figure out what their assignment was, and get underway. "So I hear you have work for us?" Ruby asked.

"Yep, got some work for you guys. We're just waiting on Yang now. Speaking of, have you guys seen her recently? I don't know where she is, or if she is going to show up to this meeting or not." Jaune said back to them.

The glee in Ruby's eyes died down a little when her sister was mentioned. It hurt to see Yang the way she was and not be able to help her. She had managed to help when she asked Yang to help train her with her new weapons, but that only lasted a little while and now she didn't need the training anymore. "My guess is either the mess hall drinking, or in her bunk already passed out from drinking." Weiss said instead of Ruby. She knew how much it affected her seeing Yang like that and so she wanted to get the topic off of her and onto other things. "We can start without her and then fill her in when we find her. What's our job?" Weiss asked quickly, not giving Jaune a chance to respond.

Jaune stared at Weiss for a moment, looking to see if she would say anything through her body language, but all he got from her was a cold stare that told him to let it be. "Right, well there's a warehouse within the Industrial District, near the break in the river. Since it's in White Fang territory, the odds of it being defended are pretty high." Jaune stated.

"What's in the warehouse that is so important?" Ruby asked, switching gears and going into what she dubs 'leader mode'.

"A large supply of Dust and Food, which we need to bring back since our supplies are low." Port cut in. "Those supplies would go a long way to helping out over on our end, and it would both help us, and cut off some of the White Fang's supplies as well."

Weiss smirked. "Sounds good, now how do we get in there?"

Commander Port walked the two of them over to the map of Vale. On it was the markers showing the different borders and plans of attack. There were many different pins in different locations on the map pointing out many targets, and Port pointed to two that were really close to each other. "This is the location of the Warehouse, which fortunately for us, sits right nearby an old broken down Schnee Refinery."

Weiss could instantly see where this was going. "Let me guess, you want us to cut through the refinery to save time and to bypass their defenses, right?" Weiss asked, knowing the answer before she asked the question.

Port decided to humor her with an answer anyway. "Why child, you have a brilliant mind, and a strategic prowess to you." He said complimenting Weiss on her brilliance. "Yes, the two of you, along with Yang, will pass through the old refinery. Since it's former Schnee Property, I hope you would be able to use some of the old Schnee Access Codes to get into the building without having to fight your way through." Port exclaimed, his bombastic nature showing up yet again.

Weiss looked down at the map. She knew of the Refinery that Port had mentioned, but she also knew that it had been abandoned for some time, even before the war began. Who knows what they would find down in the ruins. Ruby looked at Weiss, and she could tell that Weiss was seriously considering if it was feasible or not to go through the old Refinery. "You think it's doable Weiss?" She asked.

Weiss leaned her hands against the table that the map sat upon, her mind running the numbers. "I guess as long as we stay on our toes, then there shouldn't be any problems from the place." Weiss stated after a few moments of contemplation. Ruby noticed by the look on Weiss' face though, that she wasn't 100% sure of the decision, but from what she could tell, it didn't look like there were many other options that they had.

"Excellent!" Port exclaimed yet again. "We will be sending over boats to where the old Refinery connects to the river. It will drop you off there, and then wait for you to return with the supplies. Once you've secured the warehouse, we will send more teams in to gather the supplies that we can, and blow the rest." He stated.

"Just be careful guys. I can't tell you how important this is, but staying quiet and being quick are pretty important here. The longer we're there, the more likely they are to send reinforcements, especially if you're caught before we can get the warehouse secure." Jaune stated. "Get in without alerting the guards, secure the warehouse, and help load the supplies into the boats." Jaune threw a switch over to Ruby. "When you've secured the warehouse, use this to let the recovery team know that they can start to move in and get the supplies." Jaune stated.

"Sounds simple enough." Ruby stated.

Weiss moved her hand to cover her face. "The last time you said that, you nearly brought a building down on top of me." Weiss stated, recalling a recent mission the two of them went on. "You're lucky I was able to make it out in time."

"Relax Weiss, you didn't get crushed then, nothing bad will happen now." Ruby said as she wrapped her shoulder around the Heiress. "Loosen up a little won't ya?" Weiss didn't even give her a response, instead electing to just shake her head at Ruby, who had turned her attention back to Commander Port and Jaune. "We'll go find Yang and fill her in on the way."

"Good, now move out! Those supplies aren't going to move themselves." Port said to them, which gave them the reason to leave.

Ruby and Weiss walked out of the command center and turned towards the Barracks, they had to search for Yang and hope that she was in a good enough state to function. Ruby ran towards Yang's room, coming up on it almost immediately. Knocking on the door, she hoped that Yang was there. "Ugh, it's open." Ruby heard from the other side of the door. Slowly she opened the door and looked inside, noticing that Yang was on her bed, trying her damn hardest to sleep. "Hey Ruby, you need something?" Yang said.

Ruby looked at Yang, who was starting to sit up. She was really hit hard by Blake's death, and it changed her the most out of Team RWBY. She lost her usual smile, and the blinding enthusiasm that she showed, it being replaced by depression at the loss of the one she loved. When she wasn't going out on suicidal missions, she was killing herself by drinking whenever she could. Anyone who had seen Yang before the war would have been shocked to see how she was now.

Even her physical appearance changed slightly, though the differences weren't that many. Her brown jacket was longer, and went down to her waist, and she wore black leggings instead of booty shorts. The only other changes she had, were the more significant ones. She wore the ribbon that Blake used with Gambrol Shroud around her arms, the ribbon crossing over each other, wrapping itself tightly around her arms. But what was the most drastic change, the one that had Ruby really concerned, was that Yang had decided to cut her golden mane of hair. Now it only went down to right above her shoulders, a really big sign of just how far down into depression Yang was. Yang loved her hair, she took care of it more often than anything else. Before, if anyone had even pulled out one single strand of hair, she would burst into a fiery inferno and destroy whoever had caused that strand of hair to fall out. Now, it was as if she didn't care anymore about what happened to her, something that had Ruby often wondering if Yang would truly be ok after the war was over.

"Hey Yang, how you feeling?" Ruby asked, walking over to Yang's bunk and kneeling down next to her. Yang was given her own room, so that no one could bother her and get killed by the blonde haired fury.

Yang started to stand up and stretch out, prompting Ruby to sand up next to her. "I'm fine." She said. Yang didn't like how she worried Ruby so much, so she thought a little lie here and there would go a long way to helping Ruby get through what she was going through. "We got work to do?" Yang yawned, it was clear that she had just woken up. Yang rubbed her head to clear the haze of alcohol that was washing out of her system.

Weiss was waiting outside the whole time, letting Ruby have a moment of privacy with her sister, despite being able to hear everything going on. It hurt her to see Yang having to lie to Ruby like she did, but she understood just what it was like to have to lie to family for their own sake. "We have a warehouse to steal some supplies from." Weiss heard Ruby say as she led Yang out of her room. Yang was putting her gauntlets on as she was walking and checking to see if she had everything.

"Sounds fun." Yang said, trying her hardest to put on a smile for Ruby. Weiss caught up to them and nodded to Yang. "Morning Princess." Yang said, throwing an arm around Weiss' shoulders.

"You're more chipper than usual this morning Yang, what gives?" Weiss asked.

"What, do you expect me to be a depressed drunk all the time? I hurt at your words Weiss." Yang said, though Weiss could tell that she didn't really put her heart into it. It was almost like Yang was just going through the motions right now.

"Whatever, I'm sure you're well enough to run on autopilot right now, so stop wasting time." Weiss didn't mean to sound rude, but it hurt to see how Yang's behavior affected Ruby. If Ruby wasn't around, Weiss would have told Yang how badly she is affecting the young girl, but she never got the chance to do so before. Ruby was almost always paired with Weiss or Yang, or even both at the same time, and so Weiss couldn't say a word to the blonde. "What did Ruby tell you so far?" Weiss asked as they continued walking.

"That we're hitting a warehouse for supplies." Yang said immediately.

"Ok, well to get there, we're going through an old abandoned Schnee Refinery. We don't know what we'll find in there, but it shouldn't be anything we can't handle." Weiss stated once they got out of the base and onto the destroyed streets of Vale. "We need to be quick and quiet while we get there, else the White Fang will send in reinforcements and we get nothing." Weiss said.

"So I guess we know why Weiss is coming along then. She get's to play doorman huh?" Yang said, throwing a nonchalant insult Weiss' way.

Weiss had started to grow tired of it. Between the remark that Yang had just said, plus all the times that she felt taken for granted because of her powers, she was fed up with the way she was treated. She felt more like a tool than a person at that point, even by Ruby. But before Weiss could blow a gasket on Yang, Ruby stepped in. "Come on Yang, that wasn't really appropriate. You should apologize to Weiss." Though it was moments like that, where Weiss felt better about herself, moments where Ruby stood up for her like the person she really was.

"Fine, sorry about the doorman comment Weiss. I didn't realize just how upset you would get about it." Yang said. Part of Weiss almost didn't believe her, but when she looked at Yang, she saw that Yang had that same look of guilt that she had whenever she thought about Blake.

So Weiss believed it, mostly. "I accept. Now can we keep moving? I want to get this over with." Weiss stated as she continued to walk over to the refinery, with Ruby and Yang following close behind.

* * *

**AN: So this chapter is clearly not as long as the prologue was, however I feel that is fine. There is much more dialogue in this than there was in the prologue with helps move the plot along well in my opinion. Plus we get to see the first appearance of Yang in the actual story, and not in a flashback of what has already come.  
**

**The prologue was mostly written to provide you all with some background information as to things that are important in the story. I figured it would be better to explain details that were important to not about the setting before getting into the actual story, so that you could see just who led up to where they were in the present moment. Which is why most of the prologue was a flashback. If I didn't write that in, wouldn't you guys just be confused as to why everything was the way it was?**

**Character designs for all of the important characters, such as Ruby, Weiss (who both already have their designs up), Yang, Jaune, Pyrrha, etc. will be posted onto DeviantArt under my gf's account, since she is the artist for this story and onto Tumblr, whenever she gets around to that. And the comic that is going to be drawn along side this will be posted to both places as well. If you guys are interested in seeing the art that we already have done (which unfortunately isn't much) then you can check it out there. (DeviantArt info is in the notes of the prologue)**

**In all honesty though, I'm fortunate about what had happened in the actual episode of RWBY that came this past thursday, because I'm already using points that came up in it within this story, and I will use more later on down the road. The CCT being implemented into the story makes a great point as to one of the reasons why Vale is pretty much on it's own.**

**Anyway, if you guys are ever interested in speaking to me, you can message me here or on Tumblr with any questions that you may have about this story or any other story that I have. Given that I have at least 5 stories that are either in progress, or need to be written out, I have plenty on my plate ahead of me. In any case however, thanks for reading this. Please give a review as to how you think the story is going, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	3. Refining Details

It was a short hike over to the boat that was to take the trio over to the refinery, leaving no room for conversation. The sounds of gunfire were heard echoing across the river, a sign of the seemingly never ending struggle for the city. Once they got to the boat, they motioned to the captain to drive them over to the refinery. Weiss had visited the refinery before it was shut down, back when she was still young. The refinery had suffered a terrible explosion that caused it to be shut down and sealed up tight. Fortunately, Weiss also remembered that there was a ladder that allowed for people to go into the refinery through the river.

Guiding the boat's captain to where the ladder was, she beckoned for Yang and Ruby to follow her up. Once they were up they made their way to the door, Ruby and Yang looking on for any guards while Weiss opened the door.

"Could you hurry up Weiss?" Yang said.

Weiss' brow furrowed and she looked up at Yang for a moment. "Could you not rush me Yang?" The two definitely had their fair share of differences, often leading to them arguing with each other. Despite this they still manage to look out for each other most of the time, but it doesn't always work out that way.

"Both of you stop. We can't be arguing right now," Ruby stated, doing her best to put a stop to the fighting as soon as possible. "Weiss, you take all the time you need, but remember that we're in a rush." Ruby tried to mediate between the two of them as often as she could, usually settling the conflicts between them, although a few managed to go beyond what she could do.

Weiss groaned and then got back to work in a huff. Under her breath so Ruby and Yang couldn't hear her, she mumbled to herself. "All the powers of dust at your fingertips and you're nothing but an over-sized battery and a torch." Ever since she had gotten the powers that she had, Weiss had definitely felt as though people took her for granted, Ruby and Yang unfortunately doing that the most. It kept making Weiss irritable and bitter, but she was too proud and stubborn to say anything about it to Ruby, who would be the one person who would listen. Once she opened the door using the codes that her father made her memorize, Weiss turned to Ruby and Yang. "Door's open," She said, guiding them inside.

Once they got into the refinery, Weiss shut the door behind them and sealed it shut. "Great work guys, we got ourselves stuck inside of a spooky old refinery without any way to see a damn thing," Yang remarked.

Ruby turned to Weiss. "Weiss, could you-" Ruby was interrupted before she could finish her statement.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it already," Weiss said to Ruby. With a snap of her fingers, a small fire appeared in her hand, lighting up the area immediately around them. "It's not like I'm good for anything else," Weiss mumbled to herself as she started to walk through the refinery. Ruby unfortunately heard that last statement, and turned to face Weiss, only to see a look of bitterness on the heiress' face. Ruby wanted to say something, but something inside of her told her that now wasn't the best time to do that. She needed Weiss to cool off and they had work to do anyway.

They walked across the catwalks above the machinery the fire in Weiss' hand being the only source of light inside the building. Looking down below, Ruby's curiosity was piqued at how things worked here. "Hey Weiss."

"What is it Ruby?" Weiss said, wondering why it was that Ruby felt the need to make conversation right now.

"I'm curious as to how the refinery works, exactly," Ruby said as she caught up to Weiss and walked next to her.

Weiss shook her head before speaking up. "When mined, the dust that is found naturally is unrefined and doesn't generate as much energy. A place like this would serve as a mechanism to cut up the crystals in a way that would allow some parts to remain useful crystals, while the areas with the imperfections and the flaws to be ground up into dust powder," Weiss said. "When it's ground up, all the impurities are removed from the crystals as it's being cut up into smaller and smaller pieces and what they take out is then disposed of since it's pretty much useless."

"Wow, that's actually pretty interesting. So refining it makes it more efficient then?" Ruby asked as she looked on at the machinery.

"Yes. Raw dust crystals, though larger, aren't as useful because of those impurities in them. It's why these refineries were built, despite the need to be carefully handled," Weiss stated, referring to the explosion that had closed down this refinery.

"Sounds boring, at least for us normal people," Yang said to herself.

The look on Yang's face when she gets mad is one thing, but the way Weiss looked at Yang at that moment made her look twice as menacing, especially with the way the light from the fire lit her face up. Weiss' jaw was clenched tightly, her head tilted in a way that shadowed her eyes darkly. "What did you just say, Yang?" Weiss said.

Before it could go any further, Ruby stepped in and put her hand against Weiss' shoulder, hoping it would calm her down. Weiss turned her stare on Ruby, who looked scared that Weiss and Yang would get violent with each other. "Weiss, please, it's not worth it," Ruby pleaded, hoping it would help calm Weiss down.

Weiss just turned and walked away, though she was still fuming the entire time. Yang walked up to Ruby and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about the Ice Queen, she just likes to flaunt around like she owns the place," Yang said. Upon hearing that, Ruby turned around, giving Yang a disgusted look at what she just heard. "Don't tell me you're taking her side right now."

Ruby shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Do you realize just how hurtful those comment were? Weiss may be thick skinned, but she still has feelings, just like you and me." Ruby felt her blood start to boil. "You can't just go around saying things like that and act like it doesn't matter."

"The only thing I care about nowadays, Ruby, is seeing Blake again, and everything else can piss off." Yang walked past Ruby, following after Weiss and leaving her sister staring at the metal walkway beneath her feet. Eventually Ruby went to chase after them, heartbroken that her own sister didn't seem to care anymore.

After the sisters had caught up to Weiss, they came up to a door leading into the offices. It was, however, sealed with a specially locked door that needed the power running in order to open it. Weiss was looking for a way to go around it, but once Yang got there, she just tried to open the door straight. "It wont work that way, I already tried it," Weiss said as she kept knocking against the wall, looking for a hollow spot. "We would need to turn on the power in the entire refinery before that door would open."

Yang walked over to Weiss and stood by her while she kept working. "Well then why are you standing around over here? You can get the power in this place running so why aren't you doing that already?" By that point Ruby was showing up and seeing that there was more trouble brewing again.

"Because if I turn the power on, then the White Fang will know that someone is in there, and we'll have failed the mission," Weiss stated.

"And what makes you so sure about that?" Yang asked yet again, this time more forcefully.

Weiss gave up on trying to search for the right spot in the wall while Yang was chatting right next to her. Standing up, she looked up at the blonde, more calm than she was before. "This refinery has been shut down for years. If it suddenly turns on again, the White Fang will notice it."

Yang looked to argue the point, but Ruby stopped her. "Weiss has a good point, turning on the power would make our job almost impossible. So how do you suppose we get around it?" Ruby asked.

Weiss went back to searching for the hole in the wall. "I'm looking for a hollow spot in the walls where the ventilation shafts are. We break through the wall there since it has a weak point and just waltz on in." Weiss stated to Ruby. "If you start from the hallway around the corner here, it would make this go much quicker." Ruby nodded and went to go work, leaving Yang and Weiss alone again.

"God this is stupid," Yang mumbled to herself, though Weiss did hear it.

"Like it or not it's what we're doing, not like you care about anything," Weiss stated back to her.

"Well why should I care about this stupid war, or this stupid mission, or anything in this stupid world? It's all nothing compared what what I actually want," Yang said to Weiss.

Weiss stood up again, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at the blank wall in front of her. "It's all about what you want huh? Never considering how other people might feel about it." Weiss closed her eyes. "Are you really so cowardly that you want to die, just so that you can see Blake again?" She asked, striking a nerve in Yang.

Eyes red as blood, the brawler gave Weiss one warning. "Don't you dare bring her up like that," Yang declared her body mere inches from the heiress'.

Weiss turned her head to face Yang, her gaze showing that she wasn't going to back down. "Well then how about your sister? Can I bring her up instead? Do you want me to not talk about how much pain she is in when she see's you like this, or how broken you would make her if you actually did kill yourself? Do you not care about what happens to her?" Weiss' words struck hard against Yang, causing the blonde to back down and her eyes to return to their normal lilac color. "In your self pity and suicidal despair, you've forgotten that there are still people here who depend on you, who need you around to pick them back up if they fall down. Ever since you've been doing this, I've had to step in to fill the role that you decided to abandon for selfish and cowardly reasons."

Turning around and walking a few steps away, facing the other end of the hallway, Weiss continued. "I've held Ruby, countless nights, watching her cry into my shoulder, all because you turned into this. I've stepped up to give her the love and support that she needs, that she deserves, while you go gallivanting off drinking yourself to death every night." Turning back to face Yang, Weiss drove the final nail in the coffin. "Ruby deserves a better sister than you." Weiss walked off to check on Ruby, leaving Yang to soak in what she had said.

Once Ruby noticed Weiss approach, she turned to see how she was doing. "Any luck on your end?" When Weiss simply shook her head no, Ruby didn't press any further. Giving a few more taps along the walls, she eventually heard what they were looking for. "Hey Weiss, I think I found it," Ruby declared. Weiss pushed Ruby out of the way so that she could get a listen in and see if Ruby did find what they were looking for. Once she heard what Ruby heard, she immediately started to heat up the wall directly in front of them with dust energy. "I'll go get Yang." Ruby said, turning back down the hallway to bring her sister over. With a wave of her hand, Ruby called Yang over to Weiss and herself.

Weiss spoke up again. "When I heat this up enough, I need you to punch through the metal and break it open." Eventually she heated it enough to the point where a really strong hit would break the metal. "Go ahead Yang," Weiss said.

Yang felt glad that she was able to let off some steam after her earlier argument with Weiss. The girl really stepped into some grounds that she shouldn't have. Yang stepped up, and with a wind up, and a mighty roar, she swung her fist right into the wall, blowing it wide open. Stepping through immediately afterwards, she noted the dusty shape that the old office was in. "Now what?" Yang said unhappily.

"Follow me," Weiss said, leading herself and Ruby through the hole in the wall and across the room. She walked over to a door and opened it up, gesturing for Ruby and Yang to follow her. She led them through the few remaining corridors until they came upon the door to the exit. "This'll take us up to the roof. From there we can jump over to the roof of the warehouse and head in through there," Weiss put in the code to open the door. After a few moments the door opened up and the trio walked outside onto the roof of the refinery.

Ruby walked over to the ledge, looking at the gap between the roof they were on and the roof of the warehouse. "Weiss, I know we're great and all that, but I don't think we can make that jump without making any noise," Ruby mentioned to Weiss as she walked with Yang over to Ruby.

Weiss let out a sigh. She had already thought of an idea, but wasn't thrilled about it. "I'll just throw up some glyphs so that you two can go get across." Weiss stated as she summoned a pathway of glyphs that Ruby and Yang could use as a bridge to get across. "Just be quick about it." Ruby and Yang said to make their way across the chasm and once they were across, Weiss followed suit, removing the glyphs that she had passed over while she ran. Once they were atop the warehouse, they quietly made their way to a part of the roof that looked to be made of glass.

Looking down, they saw what they were looking for. Crates of dust and food, all being guarded by members of the White Fang. "Looks like we found it, but that's a lot of supplies. I don't know if we can get it all," Yang mentioned.

As Ruby started to think of a plan, Weiss spotted something down on the floor. "Guys, Torchwick is here." That grabbed the sisters' attention, making them focus on what Weiss was looking at. "And it looks like he has that Neo girl with him, too."

"Great, just what we needed right now," Yang complained.

Hearing a noise coming from another part of the roof, Ruby looked up and saw that some White Fang guards were going up to the roof on patrol. Springing to life, Ruby launched herself towards the two, activating her gauntlets and spinning around like a top. Once she reached them, she stuck the blade into the chest of the first guard, and used the momentum she had gained to spin around him, kicking the second with a blast from her shotgun greaves. Looking up at Ruby, Weiss huffed loudly. "I'd be shocked if they didn't hear that," She said to Ruby.

"We can hope that they didn't," Ruby said, an awkward grin across her face. As if on cue, the White Fang started to stir underneath them. One look from Weiss, and Ruby's head dropped down. "I had to try." She ran over to Weiss and Yang, pulling out her scroll in the process. "I'm sending a message to Jaune letting him know that we'll grab as much as we can, but things will be tense," She said, typing out a message. "We'll jump down and take them by surprise. The quicker we take them out, the more we can get for the journey back," Ruby said as she opened up the window that they were standing over.

Looking down below them, Yang jumped in first. She was always the one who would go in first and put herself at the highest risk. On her way down, the sounds of Ember Celica activating echoed through the warehouse, and once she made it all the way down to the bottom, she dropped her fist into the ground and created a shock wave that knocked the guards off of their feet. Ruby and Weiss dropped down after her and landed next to Yang, weapons already drawn. Not even a second later, the three of them took off, splitting up so that they could defeat them quicker.

Yang used her gauntlets to propel herself into a crowd of enemies. Most of them were equipped with melee weapons, so fighting them would be simple. She locked herself into battle, a serious demeanor taking over, and she would occasionally let out a grunt with one of her strikes. In the confusion of the battle, she had let one of the guards get behind her, and he went to strike her down. She turned around to see a glyph pop up in between them and block the strike, and then just as quickly disappearing to allow Yang to retaliate.

Once Yang finished the strike, she quickly looked over to Weiss, well aware that she had put up the barrier for her. Weiss was handling herself fine. With the addition of her control over dust, Weiss had become a threat to anyone in her path. She spun around with her rapier Myrtenaster, causing most of the guards to raise their weapons to block the strike. Once she finished spinning, she picked one out of the crowd and pushed her right hand towards him, a small column of fire appearing from her hand. She turned back around and pierced the chest of one White Fang, and she quickly turned back around, spraying fire towards the other guards.

At the same time, Ruby herself was faring well. She had learned a lot from Yang and her new martial arts skills really came in hand. Using her speed, she quickly lept from foe to foe, either using her bladed gauntlets or her shotgun greaves to take them down. Her new weapons worked really well with her semblance and she used the two in combination to create deadly strikes. It was almost as if she was even more of a threat than before.

When the three of them were working together, it was almost impossible for them to go down. It was almost as if they were communicating on a telepathic level and soon, the battle was over quickly.

Torchwick and Neo took off once they heard Yang drop into the warehouse. Weiss assumed he was going to be getting backup and that limited how much time they had. "Start grabbing. Priority goes to food and dust supplies. Anything else that we can grab, do so after we have what we need," Ruby said as she started to search the containers. Soon she heard the doors to the warehouse open and she turned to see who it was.

Standing there was a group of hunters sent to help them with the supplies. "Sir, what do you need us to grab?" The first said.

"Just start with these crates over here. If we have time we can grab the stuff over on this side, but I don't think that's likely. If you have semblances that can move these things more efficiently then use them," Ruby said as she got back to work. Ruby helped the hunters who had arrived move some of the crates, and Yang was able to move them on her own. Weiss formed glyphs underneath some of them and floated them over to the entrance. They worked quickly to get the crates onto the boats and even then Ruby was worried that they wouldn't get enough. Weiss used her glyphs to float most of the crates down to the boats and let them on gently, but after a crate was nearly lost to sea, she knew that it was time for her to stop.

With the crates loaded on, Ruby looked outside the warehouse and noticed that more guards were coming. "Time to bail, guys," Ruby said as she sprinted towards the boats. Weiss and Yang jumped into the boats when they heard the doors to the place open up. As the White Fang guards began to pour into the building, they took aim at Ruby and began to open fire just as she was about to leap onto the boat.

Avoiding most of the fire and letting her aura shield her from the ones that did hit her, Ruby dropped down onto the boat and told the drivers to leave. She then took a seat in the boat next to Weiss and Yang and watched as the warehouse shrank out of sight. "Well that was close." Yang said, slouching in her seat.

"Yeah, you ain't kidding," Ruby responded.

Weiss just sat there silently. There was a lot for her to say to Yang at the moment, but she figured now wasn't the time. Being exhausted because of the ordeal didn't help her case either and so she just waited for the ride to be over.

* * *

**AN: So yeah, this took way too long for me to write. I would like to apologize first off for not getting this done sooner, and hopefully anything that comes after this will be out within a reasonable time frame.**

**I finally got myself an editor to run through my stuff and make sure it's up to par, so give a huge thanks to him because he is working really hard with this for me even though he doesn't have to. Hopefully all of his efforts pay off (which I really hope they do) and that these are great reads.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


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